This is a nice little terrarium that you can do in about half an hour if you have all the materials on hand. I chose a tabasco bottle because it is very small and has a unique shape. You can use any small condiment bottle and if you want to make the project a bit easier choose something with a larger mouth so you can get the materials into it much easier.

What you need to make this project:

• 1 Tabasco Bottle with cap
• Some Soil
• A couple of bowls
• Some pebbles
• Seeds (I used Burpee Alysseum because it is a very small flowering plant)
• Water
• A Piece of screen or some type of fine strainer
• Not Shown in pic: A wooden barbecue skewer to use as a tool

Beginning

The first thing to do is wash out the bottle very thoroughly. I would imagine that any remaining tabasco sauce would be detrimental to the plants in the terrarium. After that use soap and water to remove the front and back labels. I left the label around the neck because it looks good and adds a littlle green to the bottle.

Strain the soil for small pebbles. Running a batch of soil through a screen will leave a lot of nice pebbles on the top of the screen. I then took these pebbles and put them in the tabasco bottle until I had a layer of about one half inch.

This step of putting pebbles in the bottom of the terrarium is important because it will help water to drain to the bottom and keep it from soaking the soil and rotting the roots of your plant. It is particularly important because the terrarium is so small.

Repeat this process of screening with your potting soil. I used a brush to gently brush the soil and get it to fall into the bowl. Once you have a good amount you can then pour it into the tabasco bottle. If you are using potting soil from a bag you are going to have to do this step. Potting soil is very chunky and most of it won't fit through the narrow opening of the bottle.

Pour it into the bottle until it is about 1 inch thick.

Okay, The bottle has one half inch of pebbles and one inch of soil and it looks great. Use some kind of a tool like a wooden barbecue skewer to keep the sides of the bottle clean.

Now drop a few seeds right into it and push them into the soil with your barbecue skewer. Then add a few drops of water. Replace the cap and you are ready for it to germinate!

I just completed this project so the seeds haven't germinated yet but as soon as they start growing I will post some pictures here.

I think this is about a week later!

I have started a new project using some of the smallest flowers in the world. They are Micro Mini Sinningia and the picture on the left shows one with a penny. I have a whole bunch of these flowering plants in a variety of species. I am going to use them to make a variety of very small terrariums. It is going to be a real fun project and if you are interested you should check back soon. Here is the page where I have begun the process with these plants and the terrariums. Terrariums with Micro Mini Sinningia

The Upside Down Terrarium

This is a unique little terraium that looks great. It took a few different techniques before I figure out how to do this right without having soil alll over the sides of the glass. learn more here